Seattle tunnel boring machine reportedly stuck

SEATTLE — The machine boring a highway tunnel under downtown Seattle has reportedly been stopped since Friday.

Transportation Department spokeswoman KaDeena Yerkan told KING-TV the machine called Bertha hit some kind of obstruction. It’s about 60 feet deep, between South Jackson Street and South Main Street.

The department said last week the machine had traveled about 1,000 feet or about one-tenth of its two-mile route since tunneling started last summer near the waterfront and sports stadiums.

The 326-foot-long machine — the biggest in the world — is creating a tunnel nearly 58 feet in diameter as part of the $3.1 billion project to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct to carry Highway 99 traffic.